Hurricane Irene was a massive force to be reckoned with.  Although it was downgraded to a tropical storm well before it made landfall here in Massachusetts, this massive system caused widespread outages in the South Shore as Marshfield and Scituate, among others, suffered severe and prolonged outages.   These severe outages came just months after Jim demanded a hearing before the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) regarding National Grid’s poor preparation for the destructive Dec. 26, 2010 blizzard that battered the town of Scituate.  As Town Meeting members are aware, that hearing process resulted in fines of over $2.25 million against National Grid and a requirement that the utility improve public safety preparations.   Jim filed several bills requesting new statewide regulations for utility companies that, if passed, will accelerate responses to downed power lines and strengthen the communication between providers and customers.  In October 2011, Jim provided testimony at recent DPU hearings and he will continue to advocate for improved service and communication from the state’s utilities during future storms.